From the NYU Archives: “Lift Every Voice and Sing” Author James Weldon Johnson

James Weldon Johnson with Fisk University students and faculty in 1932. Two years later, he accepted the role of visiting professor of creative writing at NYU. (All photos appear courtesy of the Carl Van Vechten Papers Relating to African American Arts and Letters, James Weldon Johnson Collection, in the Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library; the Carl Van Vechten Trust; and the James Weldon Johnson Foundation.)

NYU’s first Black faculty member was also a lawyer, activist, writer, and ambassador